Users of communication applications often desire to store indications that a follow up is required for one or more messages stored by an application. For example, electronic mail software applications must often deal with large numbers of electronic mail messages contained within the mail box structures provided by such applications. In order to assist users in this effort, existing electronic mail software applications allow the user to set follow up flags on specific messages, and/or to set up message rules that cause certain types of messages to automatically be flagged. When a flag is set, a visual icon is placed next to the flagged message, for example within a list of messages contained in a mailbox display object. These flags provide a visual indication of which messages in the mailbox need to be followed up on, and are sometimes referred to as “follow-up flags”. Through this mechanism, a user looking at their previously received messages can conveniently distinguish those messages that need to be followed up on by way of the visual flag icons displayed next to those messages. When the user follows up on a flagged message, for example by replying to the flagged message with a reply electronic mail message, existing systems allow the user to remove the flag from the message representation within the message list of the electronic mail mailbox, for example by clicking on the flag, or by simply deleting the flagged message itself if it is no longer needed.
A problem with follow up flags arises in environments where multiple communication applications are used. In existing systems, a user may flag an electronic mail message for follow-up regarding a certain topic or question contained in the message. The user may subsequently be involved in a communication session through a different communication application, such as an instant messaging session, and during that session the topic or question within the flagged electronic mail message may be addressed or resolved. However, the flag on the electronic message would not be removed, and the next time the user viewed their electronic mail messages they would mistakenly be led to believe that a follow-up was still required on the message because of the follow-up flag. This would be the case even though the follow-up had actually been accomplished, albeit through a different communication application, and therefore independently with regard to the flagged message.
In Google's Gmail™, users are allowed to “follow up by chat” with another user that has sent them an electronic mail message and that is also listed within the receiving user's buddy list. To accomplish this, Gmail provides a hot link through which an instant messaging session can be initiated with the sending user to follow up on the subject of an electronic mail message. While this type of existing solution facilitates initiating an instant messaging session regarding a received electronic mail message, it fails to tie together the instant messaging system with any follow up flag that may have been set on the received electronic mail message.
Other existing systems have provided an automatic follow-up function within electronic mail. In these systems, a user can set up a reminder to follow up on a specific previously received message. These systems also fail to tie an instant messaging system to a follow up flag that was set on a received electronic mail message
For the above reasons and others, it would accordingly be desirable to have a new system that effectively ties a follow up flag set within a first communication application, such as a flag set on an electronic mail message contained in a user's mailbox, to a second communication application, such as an instant messaging system.